Snow football: Do you love it?

The snow was light but the wind was bitter cold on Saturday when BYU played at Notre Dame. BYU’s JD Falslev pointed out that he had never played in worse conditions. Stories in the Deseret News on Sunday mentioned the conditions in Pullman, Wash., where the Utes played, and Logan, where USU was putting away Colorado State.

That got me thinking, because I’ve seen a number of snow games. The year Erroll Tucker ran a touchdown 90-something yards in the snow was one. That was in Provo. But as they like to say, it was a dry cold. Then there was the time BYU’s Marc Wilson played in a blizzard in Laramie. The snow came on so hard that it was difficult to see the players at all. Seeing the yard stripes? Forget about it.

Associated Press photo

I covered a game at Colorado State one year that was cold enough to kill the battery on my rental car.

Any outdoor sport in November, in the upper latitudes, is going to be cold.

I love snow football, but that’s mainly because I don’t have to play in it or even write in it. That’s why I was so disconcerted when Real Salt Lake advanced to the conference finals. If Houston had been Real’s MLS Cup opponent, the game would have been in Sandy on Dec. 7.

Let me remind you that Rio Tinto has an outdoor press box.

I used to think the games in Laramie were the worst. I remember Utah playing up there one year under Ron McBride, and players said the field had an ice glaze. Surprisingly, some of the colder conditions I’ve seen were in the Deep South. Covering BYU in the Liberty Bowl was surprisingly cold. When the sun went down and the wind kicked up in Memphis, it was truly cold conditions.

In any event, I’m hoping readers can contribute their favorite snow-game stories. What did they do to stay warm, where they were, and, of course, how cold was it?

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Brad Rock

One comment

Eric Monson

In 1973, BYU played the Utes in SLC. I was a BYU student, and I went to the game with my dad, who was a Ute. Hugesnowstorm – they plowed the artificial turf field before the game and had people with snow shovels going back and forth to keep the sidelines and end zones visible. At one point, BYU led, 46-3. Dad went into the Student Union to watch UCLA-USC, while I stayed at the game to revel in the Cougars’ dominance. Great day!